%0 Journal Article
%T Neglected ocular surface care in critical care medicine: An observational study.
%A Selvan H
%A Pujari A
%A Sachan A
%A Gupta S
%A Sharma N
%J Cont Lens Anterior Eye
%V 43
%N 4
%D 08 2020
%M 31488350
%F 3.946
%R 10.1016/j.clae.2019.08.009
%X To study the prevalence of lagophthalmos and its related complications among the unconscious patients admitted in the intensive care units (ICU)/wards of a tertiary care centre.<BR>Cross-sectional observational study.<BR>A total of 87 unconscious patients were included. 44 were children and 43 were adults. The overall median age of patients was 16 years (range: 9 days- 85 years). 53/87 (60.91%) showed signs of lagophthalmos, among which 56.60% (30/53) were children and 43.40% (23/53) were adults. There was no significant difference in the exposure patterns between children and adults (p = 0.25). Exposure related manifestations (conjunctival/corneal) were found in 49/87 patients (56.32%). The most common conjunctival manifestation was chemosis, occurring in 28/53 patients (52.83%). Corneal exposure was seen in 31/53 patients (58.49%), of which fragile epithelium was the commonest finding (32.08%). Only 17/31 (54.83%) cornea exposed eyes were taped, of which 15 were sub-optimal. 6 patients were unnecessarily taped. Signs of infection were noted in 8/53 eyes (15.09%).<BR>Optimal eye care in unconscious patients can avert the development of exposure-related complications and subsequent ocular morbidity. Adoption and implementation of systematic protocols can help improve the standard of care.